• More than 130 attorneys
• Offices in Madison, Metro-Milwaukee and Minneapolis
• International clientele
• Large, publicly-traded clients
• Small, local business clients
• Proven track record of success
• Ability to "Right-Size" the team in response to case demands
• Service as local Minnesota and Wisconsin counsel for firms across the country and around the world.  

Experience

DeWitt attorneys have represented clients in state and federal courts throughout the U.S., foreign courts and administrative tribunals, U.S. Customs Enforcement, and administrative proceedings such as PTAB, TTAB and ex parte reexamniations.

Results

• $4.2 Million Jury Verdict – Software Theft
• $2.5 Million Jury Verdict – Trade Secret Theft
• $4.1 Million Jury Verdict – Copyright Infringement
• $3.25 Million Jury Verdict – Trademark Infringement
• $23 Million Jury Verdict – Breach of Cross License
• Copyright Defense - $0 Jury Verdict – Case Dismissed
• Copyright Infringement -- Injunction Granted, Damages Settled –
• Trade Dress and Copyright Infringement --  $0 Settlement,  Case Dismissed
• Trademark Dilution Defense –Case settled, $0 paid, client still using mark
• Patent Troll Defense – Troll’s patent invalidated
• Patent Troll Defense - $0 – Cases Dismissed
• Opponent’s Patent Invalidated - PTO
• Successful Defense of Patents in Inter Parties Reviews – PTO
• Successfully Invalidated Patents in Inter Parties Reviews – PTO
• Opponent’s Trademarks
• Invalidated
• Trade Secret Defense—Settled, commissions paid to client
• Patent infringement settlement after trial victory – successfully represented patent owner in infringement action in medical 

Patents

DeWitt has the strength and experience to be your legal team.  Our patent litigation practice includes:

• Representing patent owners and accused infringers in courts throughout the U.S.
• Prosecuting and defending clients in Inter Parties Review and Reexamination Proceedings in the USPTO.
• Coordinating litigation efforts in foreign tribunals.

We know how to develop and implement strategies that work.  

Copyrights

Results speak volumes.  That is why major media companies, software companies, jewelers, musician, photographers, authors and other artists regularly look to DeWitt to enforce their rights and defend them in copyright disputes.

Trademarks

DeWitt’s IP litigation team’s trademark practice includes:

• Enforcement and defense of trademark claims in court.
• Working with the U.S. Customs Service;
• Prosecution and defense of client rights in opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
• Protecting client’s foreign trademark rights throughout the world.

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​Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are now protected by both state and federal law. Non-disclosure, non-solicitation and non-compete agreements often go beyond the trade secret statutes.  DeWitt’s litigation team regularly defends the rights of companies and individuals all such matters.

Slaying Patent Trolls

DeWitt IP litigators have a proven track record defeating patent trolls.  We understand how patent trolls operate and our attorneys have repeatedly defeated them.  One Troll’s patent was held both invalid and unenforceable due to inequitable conduct. Even in the courts that trolls prefer, DeWitt attorneys have repeatedly defeated them resulting in court dismissals with $0 paid to the troll. 

DeWitt Attorneys Represented Clients in the Following Courts:

• District of Arizona
• Superior Court of Arizona for Maricopa County
• Central and Northern Districts of California
• Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County
• District of Delaware
• Middle and Southern Districts of Florida
• Circuit Court of Cook, LaSalle, Stephenson and Will Counties, Illinois
• Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of Illinois
• Supreme Court of Illinois
• Iowa District Court for Linn County
• ​District of Kansas
• District of Maryland
• District of Massachusetts
• District of Minnesota
• Southern District of New York
• Northern District of Ohio
• Western District of Oklahoma
• Supreme Court of Oklahoma
• District of Oregon
• Middle District of Pennsylvania
• Eastern District of Texas
• Eastern District of Virginia
• Western District of Washington
• Eastern District of Wisconsin
• Western District of Wisconsin
• Supreme Court of Wisconsin
• Courts of Appeal for the Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Federal Circuits

• PTO
  • Inter Parties Review
• PTAB
  • Trademark Opposition/Cancellation

Intellectual property (IP), patents in particular, remain largely untapped as a potential source of revenue because few IP lawyers and even fewer business people and non-IP lawyers are aware that vehicles to generate revenue directly from patents exist in today’s marketplace. At DeWitt, we have a highly experienced Intellectual Property team and the techniques to generate revenue directly through patents-IP Monetization.

IP Monetization is a method companies can use to generate revenue directly from IP assets, typically patents. In a standard transaction, a company sells its patent to a third party who expects to generate revenue through licensing or litigation of the patent. The selling company will often retain a license to continue using the technology protected by the sold patent, which minimizes the business impact of selling the patent.

IP Monetization is an emerging practice which evolved from the “intellectual asset management” movement. In contrast to the somewhat undefined goals of intellectual asset management and relative difficulty in assessing whether such goals were met, IP Monetization produces measurable financial results.

While IP Monetization efforts have been heavily focused on the high tech software and hardware businesses of Silicon Valley, our attorney, Joe Miotke, is expanding the scope of IP Monetization beyond Silicon Valley so that a broader variety of industries and businesses can share in the benefits of IP Monetization.

IP Monetization occurs in two distinct phases: (1) the mining phase and (2) the monetizing phase.

The first phase, often conducted on a fixed-fee basis, involves reviewing a client’s patent portfolio and “mining” for those patents that can be sold or otherwise monetized. The goal of the mining phase is to identify high-value patents, the diamonds in the rough, of which a client might not be aware.

During the mining phase, we work very closely with the client’s engineering, sales and marketing personnel to assess the potential marketability of patent assets. In addition, we frequently collaborate with the client’s existing IP counsel for additional information about the client’s IP portfolio.

The end work-product of the mining phase is an assessment of the marketing potential of the client’s patent portfolio.

The second phase is monetizing the patents identified during the mining phase. The monetizing phase is typically conducted on a success fee-based structure. The most common form of monetizing a patent is an outright sale of the patent, by and large with a license back to the client enabling the client to continue practicing the patented technology. However, we work with clients to customize the transaction depending upon the specific needs of the client as well as any specific requirements of the purchaser.